Strong Finnish ladies team to challenge for gold

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(01/20/2009) - It has been 10 years since Finland hosted an ISU championship, when Helsinki hosted the 1999 Worlds. The city will host the European Championships for the third time starting January 20.

In 1999, the Finns had no serious chances for medals. This time, the host country is hoping for more than one.

Ladies

Finland's ladies team is the strongest in Europe. All three of their entries have made the podium at Europeans the past four years.

Susanna Pöykiö had the highest finish when she took the silver medal in 2005, then placed fourth in 2007.

Current Finnish champion Kiira Korpi won the bronze medal in 2007 and finished just off the podium last season.

All three of the ladies have a legitimate chance to reach the podium in Helsinki.

Even so, Italy's Carolina Kostner is considered the favorite again this year after winning the last two European Championships and a silver medal at the 2008 Worlds.

Kostner is the only lady competing at Europeans who is ranked in the top ten in the icenetwork.com world rankings, coming in third after Yu-Na Kim and Mao Asada.

The only other European lady ranked in the top ten, Switzerland's Sarah Meier, who has been on the podium at Europeans for the last two years, will miss the event due to a back injury. Meier was ninth in the latest rankings.

All off the Finns were in the next ten in the rankings with Lepisto ranked 11th, Korpi 15th and Poykio 20th.

The only other entry currently ranked in the top 20 is 2004 European champion, Julia Sebestyen of Hungary, who is ranked 16th.

Men

In the men's competition, the battle for supremacy is shaping up as a French-Czech affair.

France's Brian Joubert, the top-ranked man in the icenetwork.com world rankings,
is a two-time European champions (2004 and 2007) and would like a third title.

Joubert has had an up-and-down season, withdrawing from the French Nationals and the ISU Grand Prix Final due to injuries, but is now healthy.

Khokhlova and Novitski, who won bronze medals at both the European and World Championships last season, beat Domnina and Shabalin at the Cup of Russia but had to with draw from the ISU Grand Prix Final due to illness.

This could be the year that Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, ranked fifth in the icenetwork.com standings, finally reach the podium at the European Championships.

The couple, who have been in the top eight at Europeans since 2003 and just missed the podium last year with a fourth-place finish, made their first ISU Grand Prix Final this season, finishing fourth.